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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126466
.... ~ 0.. < Winner Bob Popiel. shown here doing a little scrambling. dropped 41. Former winner Malcolm Smith endured the tight stuff to finish second. Torturous Tecate 500 allows only 31 survivors By Larry Langley . TECATE, B.C., MAR. 29-30 Team Husky's Bob Popiel admittedly "survived" the running of the 1980 Tecate 500 enduro hosted by the Los Ancianos M.e. in relatively good fashion. He won by an incredible margin of 82 points over runner-up and former Tecate winner, Malcolm Smith. Popiel dropped just 43 points over the 400 + mile ven- 10 ture into the backbone of Baja's wildemess. Riding a Husky 390 Automatic, it was Popiel's second 500-mile, two-day win in the last year, he also took over· all at the famous Jack Pine National Enduro. Malcolm was in contention for overall honon until just after lunch Sunday when he led his team members into the first check seven minutes early! What really hurt was that he didn't realize they were early as minus four was show· . i.n~.on. t_h~_flip c~~~ .(~,a!c:~l~.was.~d-. ing on minute four). The next check was just a few miles down the trail and they also hit it early. Those two checks possibly cost Malcolm the overall. Only 31 legal finishers out of 240 starters had many riders promising to never come back. The Tecate 500 has always been one of the favorite endUJ'Ol5 and had grown to become a "classic" in the true sense of the word. What caused so much grief this year was a combination of tough trails, fast averages, sloppy conditions on part of the course due to the torrential rain prior to tlte event, and no time to rest. The opinion was unanimous that the club overdid it. , " .~ch. ye~~ ,t~e ~lub members spend a lot of time in Baja scouting new sections. All the new sections finally added up to one long tough enduro. Another factor is that the Los Ancianos, while a highly enthusiastic hard·working group, lacks a core of experienced enduro riders to help guide their course planning. But over the years I have never seen them make the same mistake twice. They certainly and grimly realized their mistake when very few riders made it to lunch Sunday, much less the finish line. They are already discussing how to avoid the problems of this year's run in 1981 and reo tum to the event its rightful honor as the best enduro on the west coast, maybe in North America. It certainly has the potential. A seemingly unlimited variety of terrain and trails used but once a year into parts of Baja most people don't even dream exist. The average enthusiast wouldn't dream of getting stuck in the mud in Baja, but most of the riders did at least once. Even Baja 1000 winner Larry Roeseler (Yam) had to sweat like the rest of us in getting his bike out of the muck. And the mud was pure yuck. The kind like jello, sorta quivered if you stopped and then slowly gave way until you were sucked in. One poor soul not only got his bike stuck, but himself as weill He was starting to get scared as he couldn't get himself out and was there for three or four hours until someone finally heard his cries for help. How sticky was the mud? Ask former desert star Art Knapp. He literally had the soles of his boots sucked off while pulling freel Try explaining that to your friends as they roll around helpless with laughter at the sight! Makes standing up on the pegs a bit painful, too. Problems stuck most of the top enduro riders. ~oeseIer finally DNF with tranny problems. Teammate Rick Munyon picked up water in the gas early Saturday along with 20 or so other riders including Can·Am rider Ron Bishop. Harry Keast, 0·37 #1 Senior rider, suffered a fla t tire after the first gas on Saturday, fixed it and was doing OK 'til he hit another rider on the railroad tracks leading into ~he